The following is an excerpt from a news item published by NFPA
Nov. 12, 2003—Year after year, hundreds of people are killed and thousands are injured as a result of one of humankind's most essential and pleasurable activities: cooking. The pursuit of a home-cooked meal remains the leading cause of home fires and fire injuries, according to new data from the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association).
‘Cooking fires remain one of the toughest problems we face,’ said John R. Hall Jr., Ph.D., of NFPA's Fire Analysis and Research Division. ‘We have made less headway in preventing cooking fires than in preventing other kinds of home fires.’
Home fires have been declining-but those associated with cooking have been declining at a much slower rate. For example, home cooking fires declined by 29 percent from 1980 to 1999, but home fires in general went down by 49 percent. Deaths from home cooking fires declined 21 percent during that period, but total civilian home fire deaths dropped 44 percent. And while injuries from home cooking fires went down 7 percent in those two decades, total civilian home fire injuries fell 19 percent.
People often try to put out cooking fires on their own, and more than half of non-fatal cooking fire injuries occurred while fighting the fire. (That contrasts with total home fires, in which firefighting is involved in only one-third of non-fatal injuries.) With cooking fires, the safest response is not what may first come to mind using a fire extinguisher or applying water risk splattering and spreading the fire. A safer choice is to smother the fire by covering a pan with a lid or closing the oven door.
Reproduced from NFPA Web site ©NFPA (downloaded on 26 Jan. 2009).
My Invention ‘Firevoider’ is based on the following requirements that are expected of an Electric Cooking range Fire Safety Apparatus.
I have a great interest in the subject of safety. What I learnt is;
All safety devices are considered unnecessary bother and expense. Every body knows that incidents happen mostly when the person is careless. Some incidents that occur are beyond the control of humans and there are only a few devices that reduce their chance of occurrence. By being careful expense on safety devices can be avoided and that is what all will agree.
When I was 7 year old I wrote my grandmother a letter. I had a cold so I wrote about that to her. Before posting it my mother read it and had to put her comments on the letter. At that time, she told me that it was not proper to write about illnesses in a letter until it was grave. She told me such news can get my grand Ma and my uncle worried and that could lead to mental preoccupation and that such preoccupation can lead to fatal incidents. To conclude emotional situations cause mental preoccupation that can lead to incidents.
Under such circumstances safety devices can help avoid an incidence or reduce the chance of occurrence of an incidence. That is the reason in the field of safety it is assumed that the probability of accident can be reduced but not eliminated and that there is no boiler plate solution to avoid accidents.
On the other hand safety devices are bothersome to use. They will not be used if their disuse can be concealed. They will not be used if they cause inconvenience. To cut short it is not essential for the cook to pass a ‘Pilot Aptitude Battery Test’ to use a kitchen range fire safety device.
For any Kitchen Range Safety Device to be suitable for application at the domestic cooking range;
The device should be able to avoid fire under most circumstances
The cost of the device should be low
The device should be least noticeable
The look should be pleasing and large components should be concealable
Normal operation should be noiseless
Should be maintainable by layperson
Should not use batteries that may run out
Should not emit sound that would disrupt gossip or interfere with listening to the radio program or the TV
Should not require immediate attention
Should not require resetting without cause
Should be intelligent enough to determine if the cook is mentally preoccupied
Should allow the cook to cook smoking dishes
Should not spoil thanksgiving dinner
Should have some automation features, that will save enough time to compensate for the time spent in procuring it and looking after it
Should be able to cook parboiled rice without interference
Should not add to utility expenses and preferably be able to recover some of its cost by reducing utility expenses.